Welcome to Comic Book Legends Revealed! This is the seven hundred and sixteenth installment where we examine comic book legends and whether they are true or false.
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COMIC LEGEND:
Marvel almost introduced a brand-new Guardians of the Galaxy team for their 1990 series.
STATUS:
True
Now, obviously, Marvel's 2008 Guardians of the Galaxy comic book series is the most famous Guardians of the Galaxy...
since it, of course, was the inspiration for the blockbuster film series of the same name...
The first Guardians of the Galaxy, however, was introduced in the late 1960s by Arnold Drake and Gene Colan...
They only had one appearance, but it was highly regarded enough that Steve Gerber revived it a few years later...
Once that series ended, though, the Guardians were pretty much gone for over a decade (after they played a major role in The Korvac Saga).
They were brought back in a big way in 1990 with Jim Valentino's reboot of the series...
This is still the longest running Guardians of the Galaxy ongoing series, as it lasted for over five years.
However, it was almost a completely different book!
In TwoMorrow's Back Issue #65, Jarrod Buttery interviewed Tom DeFalco about how the series made a comeback.
DeFalco recalled, "I noticed that a number of my assistant editors were gathering together once a week to discuss the most recent episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I discussed this with Mark Gruenwald and decided it might be a good time to bring back the Guardians of the Galaxy. I began working on a basic scenario for a new Guardians book. My plan was to introduce an all-new team that was part of a large galactic organization called the Guardians of the Galaxy."
However, Jim Valentino was also trying to break in with some new ideas for Marvel and one of his proposals was for, sure enough, Guardians of the Galaxy! He showed them to Marvel and as DeFalco noted, "I remember reading Jim's proposal and liking it a lot more than the one I wrote. Bottom line - I decided to go with his proposal and I'm still glad I did!"
Valentino's Guardians of the Galaxy really was a cool series.
Thanks to Jarrod Buttery and Tom DeFalco for the information!
Check out my latest Movie Legends Revealed - Did Nintendo charge too much for the rights to Mario for him to appear in the Wreck-It Ralph movies?
Check back tomorrow for the final part of this week's Christmas-themed Comic Book Legends Revealed!